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PBIOE, 25. CENTS. 



Thomas Paine 



REVIEW OF A LECTURE DELIVERED BY REV A. L 
LINDSLEY, D. D., IN PORTLAND, OREGON. 



Prove all things; hold fast that which is good-Paul. 



BY REV. A. C. EDMUNDS, M. M. D. D., I. P., F. L. A. 




PUBLISHED BY REQUEST OF THE LIBERAL ASSOCIATION OF 



PORTLAND, OREGON. 



Entered according to .the Act of Congress in the year 1876, by A. C. Ednmnds, in the office 
of the Librarian of Congress. 



THOMAS PAINE. 



A Review of a Discourse delivered hy Rev. A. L, Linds- 
ley, D.D., in Portland, Oregon. 



By Rev. A. C. Edmunds. 



On the evening of January 30th, 1876, the Rev. A. L. Lindsley, 
D. D., pastor of the 1st Presbyterian Church of Portland, Oregon, 
delivered a discourse on the "True Life and Character'' of Thomas 
Paine. He took for his text — Prov. X: 7, and his discourse, if it 
may be dignified by that name, had one virtue, that of sticking to 
the text, at least to the "rotten" part of it. The Reverend speaker 
began by saying that — "It seems ungrateful to dwell on the errors of 
a man, " etc. This was a fitting apology for the unmanly course of 
stepping so far from the path of propriety and truth as to make 
garbled extracts from the writings of an avowed enemy, as gems of 
historical facts, and presenting them to his audience as such. I will 
leave it to any intelligent mind if such conduct was not an insult to 
intelligence. It was virtually saying one of two things: — 1st, "my 
audience is ignorant of the truth," or, 2d, "it is too sectarian to be 
honest." I cannot for a moment endorse either of these propositions, 
for my knowledge of human nature teaches me that the Reverend 
preacher's statements were repudiated by a large majority of his au- 
dience, and, by what I have since heard, by many of his warmest 
personal friends. But Mr. Lindsley is not alone in his work of vitu- 
peration. It has been the policy of ecclesiasticism for more than four 
score years. They have sought to blacken the memory of a patriot 
and a hero, by every unfair and unreasonable means — by unrelent- 
ing persecution during his life, and by spitting upon his ashes long 
after his death. How long, O Lord! — How long shall such injustice 
brood in the wallow of its triumph? Is it not surprising that a class 
of persons, claiming to be more than ordinarily upright in their in- 
tercourse with the world, should so persistently viliiy the name of 
any man, or cast opprobrium upon the memory of the cherished dead? 
Is it not one of the stains on the fair face of modern civilization? 
But I am not surprised that it is so. Through the false teachings of 
Christianity— ignoring the fundamental facts of nature; ''making lies 
their refuge and under falsehood hiding themselves,"— -misinterpret- 
ing God and degrading man, they are well prepared for the unholy 
work. It matters not how degrading the task, if it serves their pur- 
pose, they are ready to appropriate the means. This is a lamentable 
fact, too often witnessed in every-day life. It comes from living top 
much for another world and not enough for this. It is selfishness. 
NOW and HERE are words that never enter into the (sacred) vocab- 
ulary. "How to live," and not "how to die," is the problem that 
most concerns humanity. The lesson is practical, true and good. 
Let priests embrace it. 
While listening to the Lecture of Dr. Lindsley, I was forcibly re- 



minded of the words of Haydon: "Some persons are so devotional 
that they have not one bit of true religion about them." But this 
may be considered too pointed; therefore, I will notice, as briefly as 
possible, a few of the statements made by the Reverend lecturer. 
The limited space not allowing me to set forth all the points I might 
wish, or to respond with more than a mite of the testimony at my 
command. Dr. Lindsley says: 

"Independence had entered into every discussion from the first." 
This rather indefinite assertion is calculated to mislead. The 
troubles leading to Independence properly date their origin in the 
policy adopted by the Mother Country in 1762-3, and never until 
near the close of 1775 was the subject of Independence broached 
with any degree of confidence, and then only in private. Paine's 
"Common Sense" was the first public appeal for a separation. 
Franklin assured Pitt that "no such idea as casting off their depend- 
ence was entertained by the Americans." (Gordon I, p 136.) This 
assurance was made shortly previous to the origin of the disputes 
between Great Britain and her American Colonies. Further proof is 
at hand. The allegation was made by Chalmers that it was the set- 
tled policy of the Americans to acquire independence. But the state- 
ment is not supported by the facts of history. It may be confidently 
affirmed that no citations from private letters, no consultations for 
such an object by any political leaders, no resolves of any public 
body, no act of any colonial assembly can be adduced to sustain 
such a charge. (Frothingham's Rise of the Republic, p 154.) It is 
true that the spirit of individualism that took upon itself new life in 
the days of the reformation, was feeling its way to the throne of empire, 
and the Americans were unconscious workers. Turgat said in a pub- 
lic discourse that "when America was able to take care of itself it 
would do what Carthage did." (1750, Bancroft's Hist. U. S., IV, p 
66.) In 1770 British soldiers in Boston shed patriot blood, but the 
immediate withdrawal of the obnoxious troops produced a sensation 
of confidence — "many hoped that the contentions between the two 
countries was finally closed." (Ramsay's Hist. Amer. Rev. p 70.) 
Whigs and Tories resented the extreme views of the enemies of 
British rule, and considered themselves fellow subjects with Britons. 
(Rise of the Republic, p 294.) Samuel Adams wrote: "I would 
wish to have the humanity of the English nation engaged in our 
cause and that the friends of the constitution might see and be con- 
vinced that nothing is more foreign to our hearts than a spirit of 
rebellion. Would to God they all, even our enemies, knew the 
warm attachments we have for Great Britain, notwithstanding we 
have been contending for these ten years with them for pur rights." 
(Letter to Chas. Thompson, June 2, 1774.) Washington said: "It 
was not the wish of that government (the Continental Congress) to 
set up for independence, yet they would not submit to the loss of 
rights essential to the happiness of every free State." (Rise of the 
Republic, p 369.) And "further— late in 1774 Washington wrote: 
"I am well satisfied that no such thing as independence is desired by 
any thinking man in all North America. On the contrary it is the 
ardent wish of the warmest advocates for liberty that peace and 
tranquility, on constitutional grounds, may be restored, and the hor- 
rors of civil discord prevented." Dated October 9, 1774 — to Capt. 
Robt. Mackenzie. (Sparks' Washington, Vol. II, p 399.) 

I have quoted enough to show the ignorance of Dr. Lindsley in 
reference to the facts pertaining to American Independence. I have 
certainly quoted authority as substantial as the word of the rever- 



end lecturer, whose main effort was to belittle the part taken by- 
Thomas Paine in the achievement of American Independence. But 
to sustain the position assumed by the learned divine, he brings his 
authority — The Mecklenburg declaration of Independence, as he is 
pleased to style it. The first account of these resolves is found in 
the Raleigh Register of April 30, 1819. The modern history of the 
affair culminated in 1842 in a memorial address to the Assembly of 
North Carolina. (See Wheeler's North Carolina, Vol. II, p 259.) 
These resolves (the Mecklenburg declaration) were supposed to 
have been passed by the committee at their meeting in Charlotte, 
May 20, 1775, but they have been critically examined by Hon. Hugh 
Blair Grigsby in his admirable discourse on the Virginia convention 
of 177G (1855) and by Dr. Randall in his Life of Jefferson — Appen- 
dix No. 2, Vol. Ill, (1858) — who presents facts and reasonings adverse 
ot their genuineness which seem£to be conclusive.— (Rise of the Repub- 
lic, p 424.) Parallel with the assertion we have just noticed, is an- 
other as glaringly incorrect: "All questions, save one, had been 
settled when Paine came to this country." What a happy condition 
for a country. Only one disturbing question to be settled and all 
will be peace and millennial joy. Fond illusion of a visionary. 
Every person having a mere smattering of American history knows 
full well that at the very time when our revolutionary fathers were 
sending their petitions to Great Britain, full of their assurance of 
loyalty, full of assurance that they were devoted to the Mother 
Country, and that they only wanted to be placed back where they 
had been up to 1763 — every person, I say, must know that Thomas 
Paine, at this time, came out boldly for Independence.— See Amer- 
ican Encyclopedia, Vol. 12, p 664. But what are the facts, for facts 
are preferable to fiction, at least to honest, intelligent and reasoning 
minds. What the particular question was that remained unsettled, 
the reverened lecturer did not very lucidly inform his hearers, and 
so, in review, I will take a wide range and thus capture the whole 
flock. The English enemies of America were endeavoring to im- 
press upon the ministry and the crown the idea that the colonies 
were intending to cast off British allegiance. But this false charge 
was indignantly repudiated by all the leading men of America. 
But these repeated assurances of loyalty did not soften the conduct 
of an effeminate ministry, and the result was the boon of freedom. 

Jefferson, in his notes on Virginia, ( p 165 ed. 1825,) says of Vir- 
ginia: "It is well known that in July 1775, a separation from Great 
Britain and the establishment of a Republican Government had 
never yet entered into any persons mind." 

The Pennsylvania Assembly, November 9. 1775, instructed their 
delegates in Congress to endeavor to restore harmony between Great 
Britain and her colonies, using this language: "We strictly enjoin 
you, in behalf of this colony, to dissent from and utterly reject any 
proposition that may lead to a separation from the Mother Country.— 
See Life of Reed, Vol. I, p 155. The Assembly of New Jersey, No- 
vember 28, 1775, used nearly the same language. The Maryland 
Convention, December 7, 1775, ordered a declaration to be placed on 
the Journal which avowed that the people of that province never 
did nor do entertain any views or desire of independence. The New- 
York Provincial Congress on December 4, 1775. declared that none 
of the people of that colony had withdrawn their allegiance, and 
that their turbulent state did not arrise from a desire to become inde- 
pendent of the British Crown, but from oppressive acts and the hos- 
tile attempt of the minority to carry them into execution. The Del- 



aware Assembly instructed its delegates to promote reconciliation. 
Thus the middle colonies presented a solid front against all approaches 
toward independence. 

Here we find, at least, "one" question not settled at the date of 
Paine's arrival in America. But a few months wrought a wonderful 
change. "Common Sense" appeared in January, 1776, and six months 
produced a complete revolution in public opinion. If this master 
piece of Paine's did not do the work may it please the calumniators of 
Paine to tell us what agent did; for evidently it was not the work of 
chance and did not beget itself. The witnesses speak for themselves: 

Samuel Adams, one of the most bold and sturdy patriots of the Rev- 
olution, and a signer of the Declaration of Independence, in 1802, in 
a letter to Paine, lamenting the publication of the "Age of Reason," 



" 1 have frequently, with pleasure, reflected on your services to my 
native and your adopted country. Your 'Common Sense,' and your 
'Crisis' unquestionably awakened the public mind, and led the people 
loudly to call for a Declaration of our National Independence." 

Gen. Washington to Gen. Joseph Reed, March, 1776: — "By private 
letters which I have lately received from Virginia, I find that 'Com- 
mon Sense' is working a powerful change there in the minds of many 
men." 

"A few more such flaming arguments as were exhibited at Fal- 
mouth and Norfolk, added to the sound doctrine and unanswerable 
reasoning contained in the pamphlet 'Common Sense,' will not leave 
numbers at a loss to decide on the propriety of a separation." — Gen. 
Washington to Joseph Reed, dated Cambridge, Jan. 31, 1776. 

Benj. F. Lossing says: — "It (Common Sense) was the earliest and 
most powerful appeal in behalf of Independence, and probably did 
more to fix that idea firmly in the public mind than any other in- 
strumentality." — Field Book of Revolution, vol. ii. p 274. 

Major General Charles Lee, fourteen days after the publication of 
"Common Sense," thus wrote to Gen. Washington: 

•'Have you seen the pamphlet 'Common Sense?' I never saw such a masterly, 
irresistible performance. It will, if I mistake not, in concurrence with the 
transcendent folly and wickedness of the ministry, give the coup de grace to 
Great Britain. In short, I own myself convinced by the arguments of the ne- 
cessity of separation." 

Samuel Bryan in speaking of "Common Sense" said: 

"This may be called the book of Genesis, for it was the beginning. From this 
book spread the Declaration of Independence, that not only laid the foundation 
of Liberty in our own country, buttbe good of mankind throughout the world." 

Johh Frost, L. L. D., in his history of the United States, says: 

" During the winter of 1775-6, many of the most able writers in America were 
employed in demonstrating the necessity and propriety of a total separation from 
the mother country, and the establishment of constitutional governments in the 
Colonies. One of the most conspicuous of these writers was Thomas Paine, who 
published a pamphlet under the signature of 'Common Sense,' which produced 
great effect. It demonstrated the necessity, advantages, and practicability of 
independence, and heaped reproach and disgrace on monarchical governments, 
and ridicule on hereditaiy succession. — History U. S. Vol. I., pp. 192-93 

But there is no use of multiplying testimony. The entire space of 
this replication could be filled with these well known historical facts 
— well-known to all who have sufficient honesty and intelligence to 
look for them. Compare what I have quoted with the opinion of 
Reverend Dr. Lindsley as reflected in a communication to the New 
JVorthivest, of Feb. 11, 1876. It is this: 



"Much has been said among us recently about Thomas Paine. The discussion 
has a tendency to make more of the man and to give him higher celebrity than 
his true title to fame warrants or deserves. By Paine's special admirers it seems 
to be held that to the efforts of their hero mankind is immensely indebted for 
political and religious freedom. This is altogether too large an estimate of the 
man. He did nothing that entitles him to apotheosis. Nothing that he accom- 
plished would be missed, had he never lived. Not that it can be or need be de- 
nied that he possessed considerable talents; on the contrary, his career shows 
him to have been a man of ready parts, but of turbulent and reckless character, 
opposed by the constitution of his nature to government and authority, guided 
by no sincere convictions, an enemy to order and to law, ready with smart and 
ribald phrase to undermine the respect of unthinking people for political institu- 
tions and religious faith, and only in his element when society was in a ferment 
and he could appeal with imflammatory speech and sophistical arguments to the 
passions of men." 

It would be a difficult matter for the venom of hate to produce a 
paragraph containing more glaring misrepresentations. "Consider- 
able talents." What a choking admission. What an intellectual 
giant has "stooped to conquer." Jerusalem! "He did nothing to 
entitle him to Apotheosis." It is not the man but the truth I would 
deify. How blanched the face of a whited sepulcher thus to insult 
common sense. "Turbulent and reckless character;" An assertion 
known to be false by those who utter it. "Guided byno sincere con- 
victions;" The very opposite is true and known to be true by all, 
save a few religious bigots and sectarists. "Only in his element 
when society was in a ferment;" The life of Paine proves this asser- 
tion to be a base slander. But "to the law and to the testimony." 
The shallowness of Paine's calumniators is fully met by a few brief 
quotations. The reader will be left to judge of the credibility of tho 
witnesses. The author of "The Religion of Science, "in his introduc- 
tion to his Life of Paine, published by Calvin Blanchard, of New 
York, says: 

There needs but to have the light of truth shine fully upon the real character 
of Thomas Paine, to prove him to have been a far greater man than his most 
ardent admirers have hitherto given him credit for being. 

Thomas Jefferson, in a letter to Francis Eppes, says: 

You ask my opinion of Lord Bolingbroke and Thomas Paine. They were 
alike in making bitter enemies of the priests and pharisees of their day. Both 
were honest men; both advocates for human liberty. These two persons dif- 
fered remarkably in the style of their writing, each leaving a model of what is 
most perfect in both extremes of the simple and the sublime. No writer has 
exceeded Paine in ease and familiarity of style, in perspicuity of expression, 
happiness of elucidation, and in simple and unassuming language. In this he 
may be compared with Dr. Franklin. 

William Cobbett, author of a "History of the Reformation," and 
several other works, and at one time a violent opponent of Thomas 
Paine, says, in his "Paper against Gold:" 

In principles of finance, Mr. Paine was deeply skilled; and to his very great 
and rare talents as a writer, he added an uncommon degree of experience' in the 
concerns of paper money. Events have proved the truths of his principles on 
this subject, and to point out the fact is no more than an act of justice due to 
his talents, and an act more particularly due to my hands, J having been one of 
his most violent assailants. 

In his "Political Register," he confessed that: 

Old age having laid his hand upon this truly great man, this truly philosoph- 
ical politician, at his expiring flambeau I lighted my taper. 

He also 



I saw Paine first pointing the way, and then leading a nation through perils 
and dificulties of 'all sorts to Independence, and to lasting liberty, prosperity 
and greatness. 



Rev. M. D. Conway, in a sermon preached in Cincinnati, Ohio, on 
the 29th of January, 1860, said: 

All efforts to stain the good name of Thomas Paine have recoiled on those 
who made them, like poisoned arrows shot against a strong wind. In his life, 
in his justice, in his truth, in his adherence to high principles, in his disinter- 
estedness, I look in vain for a parallel in those times and in these times. 

Clio. Hickman, author of a number of poems, tales and political 
pamphlets, says: 

Why seek occasions, critics and detractors, to maltreat and misrepresent Mr. 
Paine? He was mild, -unoffending, sincere, gentle, humble, and unassuming; 
his talents were soaring, acute, profound, extensive, and original; and he pos- 
sessed that charity which covers a multitude of sins. 

Edmund Burke has been referred to as the most profound among 
men. He was the goliath in the celebrated lecture that called forth 
this review. This celebrated Statesman and orator, whose reflections 
on the "French Revolution called forth the 'Rights of Man,' speaks 
of 'Common Sense' as 'that celebrated pamphlet which prepared the 
minds of the people for Independence.' " 

Sir Francis Burdet thus alluded to Thomas Paine, in a speech in 
London, in 1797, as Chairman of a meeting of the "Friends of Par- 
liamentary Reform:" 

Union! It is union among the people that ministers dread. They are aware 
that when once the people unite in demanding their rights, then there must be 
an end to illegitimate power; I mean all power not derived from the people. 
Ministers know that a united people are not to be resisted; and it is this that we 
must understand by what is written in the works of an honest man too long ca- 
lumniated, I mean Thomas Paine. 

Rev. George Croly, in his "Life of George IV," thus speaks of 
Thomas Paine: 

An impartial estimate of this remarkable person has been rarely formed, and 
still more rarely expressed. He was, assuredly, one of the original men of the 
age in which he lived. It has been said that he owed success to vulgarity. No 
one competent to judge, could read a page of his ' "Eights of Man," without 
seeing that this is a clumsy misrepresentation. There is a peculiar originality 
in his style of thought and expression, his diction is not vulgar or illiterate, but 
nervous, simple and scientific . 

Joel Barlow, who was intimately acquainted with Thomas Paine, 
used this language: 

lie was one of the most benevolen t and disinterested of mankind; endowed 
with the clearest perception and an uncommon share of original genius, and the 
greatest depth of" thought, he ought to be ranked among the luminaries of the 
age in which he lived. "He was always charitable to the poor beyond his 
meanes, a sure protector and a friend to all Americans in distress that he found 
in foreign countries; and he had frequent occasion to exert his influence in pro- 
tecting them during the ^Revolution in France. 'His writings Avill answer for 
his patriotism.' " 

Damon Y. Kilgore, in the Boston Index, says: 

Please say to the free-thinkers of America, that, if they will be as true to their 
free thought as the devotees of orthodoxy are to their own stale and sickly su- 
perstitions, the $1,000 for our Congress of Liberals will be raised in ten days, 
and as much more for the Paine bust. Already $10,000 have been raised for 
a bronze, lifesize figure of John Witherspoon. D. D., the only minister who 
signed the Declaration of Independence, and before the end of next month 
$10,000 more are expected for the same purpose. Compared to him, Thomas 
Paine should have a monument of gold high as the shaft of Bunker Hill. 

Rev. Solomon Southwick, printer, politician, and lecturer against 
Infidelitjr, and, at onetime, the editor and publisher of the Christian 
Visitor, says: 

"No page in history, stained as it is with treachery and falsehood, or cold- 



blooded indifference to right or wrong, exhibits a more disgraceful instance of 
public ingratitude than that which Thomas Paine experienced from an age and 
country which he had so faithfully served. Was his religion, or want of relig- 
ion, the real or affected cause? Did not those who feared his taleuts, make his 
religion a pretext not only to treat him with cold neglect, but to strip him, if 
possible^ of every laurel he had won in the political held, as the brilliant, un- 
daunted and successful advocate of freedom? As to his religion, or no religion, 
God alone must be the judge of that. No human being, no human tribunal, can 
claim a right even to censure him for it, much less to make it the pretext for de- 
frauding him, either in life or death, of the reward due to his patriotism, or the 
legitimate tame of his exertions in the cause of suffering humanity. Had Thom- 
as Paine been guilty of any crime, we should be the last to eulogize his memory. 
But we cannot find'he ever was guilty of any other crime than that of advancing 
his opinion freely upon all subjects connected with public liberty and happiness. 
If he erred in any of his opinions, since we know that his intentions were pure, 
we are bound to cover his errors with the mantle of charity. His life, it is true, 
was written by a ministerial hireling, who strove in vain to blacken his moral 
character. The late James Cheethani, likewise, wrote his life; and we have no 
hesitation in saying, that' we knew perfectly well at the time the motives of that 
auther for writing and publishing a woi'k, which, We have every reason to be- 
lieve, is a libel almost from beginning to end. In fact, Cheetham had become 
tired of this country, and had formed a plan to return to England and become a 
ministerial editor, in op£>osition to Cobbett, and his "Life of Paine" was written 
to pave his way back again. We, therefore, presume that he acted upon the prin- 
ciple that the end justified the means. Had Thomas Paine been a Grecian or 
Eoman patriot, in olden times, and performed the same public services as ho 
did for this country, he would have had the honor of an Apotheosis. The Pan- 
theon would have been opened to him, and we should at this day regard his 
memory with the same veneration that we do that of Socrates and Cicero. 

I am loth to leave the department of Paine's life. So many 
thoughts are crowding for utterance — so many facts claim precedence 
that I must curtail them. A lew more references must suffice. 
''Common Sense," says Dr. Rush, "burst from the press with an ef- 
fect which has been rarely produced by types and paper in any age 
or country." 

"Bamsey, in his History of the Revolution, and his brother historian, Gor- 
don, solemnly state the fact that this book was a most important cause of the 
separation from the Mother Country." 

"Thomas Jefferson, Joel Barlow, George Washington unite in their praises of 
this work. Long after its publication, Jefferson, then President of the United 
States, sent a Government ship to bring the author home from France." 

The General Assembly of Pennsylvania, in 1785, passed the fol- 
lowing: 

Whereas, During the late Revolution, and particularly in the most trying and 
perilous times thereof, many very eminent services were rendered to the people 
of the United States by Thomas Paine, Esq., accompanied with sundry distin- 
guished instances of fidelity, patriotism and disinterestedness; 

And, Wliereas, The said'Thomas Paine did, during the whole progress of the 
Revolution, voluntarily devote himself to the service of the public, without ac- 
cepting recompense therefore, and, moreover did decline taking or receiving the 
profits which authors are entitled to on the sale of their literary works, but re- 
linquished them for the better accommodation of the country, and for the honor 
of the public cause. 

This preamble was followed by suitable resolutions in honor of the 
hero's work, and the granting to him a testimonial of $500. 

In August, 1785, after the battle was fought and the empire established, Con- 
gress in a solemn resolution, stamped the author of Common Sense with their 
approbation, as one of the greatest of the great men of the Revolution. 

Without recompense, Paine served his adopted country through 
the trying ordeal of the Revolution. Hear an extract from the 
"Crisis:" 

These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sun- 



shine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country; hut he 
that stands it now, deserves the love and thank3 of men and woman. Tyranny, 
like hell, is not easily conquered, yet we have this consolation with us, that the 
harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. 

Are not these words that move to action? They stirred up the 
starved continentals to the attack on Trenton, and there, in the dawn 
of that glorious morning, George Washington, standing sword in 
hand over the dead body of the Hessian Rhol, confessed the magic 
influence of the Author Hero's pen. 

The vilest enemy of Paine, a base hireling of the English court, 
the libeller of Jefferson and Franklin and Madison, (and the sub- 
lime authority of Lindsley for Paine's immorality,) even he, a thing 
so small in soul that his masters were ashamed of him, was forced 
to confess that: ' ' The cannon of Washington was not more formid- 
able to the British than the pen of the author of Common Sense.''' 1 

The Boston Post of January 29, 1856, in speaking of Thomas 
Paine, says: 

"His was a life of much usefulness and activity. Calumny has blistered her 
relentless hand in trying to stamp him as profane, imtemperate and mendacious. 
The real truth appears to be that he was never habituated to profanity, to drunk- 
enness, nor to falsehood; and that his calumniators are unconsciously his eul- 
ogists. His motto was: — 'TAe Worldis my Country; to do Good, my Beligion." 

These are the facts of history, and here I might close without prej- 
udice to my case. I have given ample testimony to satisfy any reas- 
onable and unprejudiced mind that the Author Hero of the Revolu- 
tion was patriotic, devoted, truthful, honest, moral, circumspect, re- 
liable, benevolent and blessed above an average of mortals with in- 
telligence and eloquent diction. 

But one thing is lacking to glorify Thomas Paine in the hearts and 
homes of our christian friends. He should have placed his name in 
the church book and said a meek amen to theological diction. For 
this defect, and for this alone is he damned. 

But Dr. Lindsley makes another very small point. With much 
emphasis he said: "Dr. Rush gave the title to 'Common Sense.' " 
What if he did? Did not the broin of Paine produce the work? Was 
he too much of a fool to name it? But others, more bold, have de- 
clared that Dr. Rush and others suggested the writing, and that even 
their thoughts entered largely into the composition. But now it is 
only a name. The Priest-hood have receded — thanks for that. 

But to the testimony — we desire facts and "let no man dare to denjr 
history." He was not only a leader in Independence, but "spoke 
boldly against Negro Slavery" and all this and more too, without be- 
ing prompted by Dr. Rush or any other man, be they never so wise. 

In Sept., 1775, Paine commenced his "Common Sense." On Oc- 
tober 18, he published in Bradford's Pensylvania Magazine "Serious 
Thoughts" upon slavery, etc., in which he says "he hesitates not a 
moment to believe that the Almighty will finally separate America 
from Britain" and hopes when this is accomplished "our first grati- 
tude may be shown by an act of continental legislation which shall 
put a stop to the importation of Negroes, soften the hard fate of those 
already here, and in time procure their freedom. 

Dr. Rush of Philadelphia, was so well pleased with this essay that 
besought an introduction to the author, but he did not, as is often as- 
serted, suggest to Paine the idea of writing "Common Sense." 
Paine began the writing of this famous production in the month 
previous to his introduction to Dr. Rush. (New Am. Encyc, Vol. 
XII. pp. 664.) 



9 

But even Linclsley in his wrath, was compelled to speak well of 
the style and terseness of Paine's writings. I should have thought 
that this isolated approval, amid so much rubbish, would have made 
the Doctor sick. 

As to the name I find no authority to settle the question. I am per- 
suaded that it was the logic of the work, not the name that produced 
such grand results. 

"But," continued the Doctor, "Paine fell into disrepute for reveal- 
ing State secrets." 

Here again Dr. Lindsley is as blind to history as his mind is to 
truth, his soul to benevolence or his life to the requirements of na- 
ture's revelations to man. But what are the facts: Paine was Secre- 
tary to the Committee of Foreign Relations. 

In January, 1779, he commenced a series of letters in the Pennsyl- 
vania Packet, denying the validity of Silas Dean's claim upon the 
American Government. For this he was censured, unheard, by a 
faction in Congress, and on the 8th of the month he resigned his 
Secretaryship. — Amer. Cyc, Vol. 12, p 664. Dean's claim was pay 
for a cargo of goods, sent by France as a present to our Government. 
Paine was successful — the claim was rejected and a large amount of 
money saved to our people — for this he is belied by the reverened 
divine. But this little stealing job, put up by Silas Dean, is what 
our astute and very impartial Christian preacher styles "revealing 
state secrets." A very mild epithet for exposing a thief. But Silas 
Dean was a Christian and could do no wrong; but Paine, in Dean's 
shoes, would have been hung with a priest as executioner. 

Again, says the lecturer: "The opinions expressed in the 'Rights 
of Man' are answerable for the atrocities of the French Revolution." 
And further, Dr. Lindsley calls the "Rights of Man" unsound. So 
would any vassal of monarchy. Unfortunately for R. S. Mackenzie, 
Dr. Lindsley does not endorse his views. R. Shelton Mackenzie, D. 
C. L., an author, critic and literary editor of great ability, in an ar- 
ticle on Muir, the Scotch Reformer, published in the Philadelphia 
Press, said: 

Holding the belief that Paine's Theological works had much better never 
have been written, we cannot ignore the fact that he was one of the ablest pol- 
iticians of his time, and that liberal minds, all over the world, recognized him 
as such. The publication of his "Eights of Man," while the French Involu- 
tion was proceeding, had so greatly alarmed Pitt, and other members of the 
British Government, that a state prosecution was commenced to crush himself 
and his book. 

Gen. Andrew Jackson, the hero of New Orleans, and the seventh 
President of the United States, said to the venerable philanthropist, 
Judge Herttell,' of New York, upon the latter proposing the erection 
of a suitable monument to Thomas Paine: 

Thomas Paine needs no monument made by hands; he has erected himself a 
monument in the hearts of all lovers of liberty. "The Eights of Man" will be 
more enduring than all the piles of marble and granite man can erect. 

Richard Henry Lee, a distinguished patriot of the Revolution, and 
who, as a member of Congress from Virginia, in 1776, first proposed 
to that body the Declaration of Independence, in returning thanks 
to Gen Washington for a copy of the "Rights of Man," remarked: 

It is a performance of which any man might be proud; and I most sincerely 
regret that our country could not afford sufficient inducements to have retained, 
as a permanent citizen, a man so thoroughly republican in sentiment, and fear- 
less in the expression of his opinion. 



IO 

The Following is related by Clio Hickman, the poet, who was with 
Paine in France: 

When Bonaparte returned (to Paris) from Italy, he called. on Mr. Paine and 
invited him to dinner. In the course of his rapturous address to him, he de- 
clared that a statute of gold ought to be erected to him in every city of the uni- 
verse, assuring him that he always slept with the "Bights of Man" under his 
pillow, and conjured him to honor him with his correspondence and advice. 

It might here be added, that when Napoleon meditated his invasion of Eng- 
land, by means of gunboats, he secured the services of Paine to organize a 
government if it proved successful. 

This is enough to show the estimate in which the "Rights of Man" 
was held by the leading minds of the age. 

As to its leading to the atrocities of the French revolution — nothing 
could be further from the fact. Paine endeavored to stay the flood 
of fanaticism and so far from being "opposed to law and order," the 
opposite is emphatically true. On the opening pages of the Age of 
Reason (Part I.) he gives his reason for its production. — "The total 
abolition of the whole national order of priesthood, and of every- 
thing appertaining to compulsive systems of religion, and compul- 
sive articles of faith, has rendered a work of this kind exceedingly 
necessary, lest, in the general wreck of superstition, of false systems 
of government, and false theology, we lose sight of morality, of hu- 
manity, and of the theology that is true." Here is the apology for 
the Age of Reason, in the language of the author. I appeal to reas- 
onable men and women if it was not an honorable effort to stay the 
"Reign of Terror" for which the long ages of despotic rule by the 
church, had prepared the minds of the people. A few facts may not 
be out of place. 

Edmund Burke's "Reflection upon the French Revolution" ap- 
peared in Oct. 1790. Paine's reply — The Rights of Man, was the 
only one that engaged public attention. The 1st part appeared in 
March, 1791; 2d part in Feb.1792. Am. eye, Vol. 12. p 665. 

The constituent Assembly which guined the French Revolution, 
labored for two years, from May the 5th, 1789, to Sept. 30, 1791, to 
establish the principles which still form the basis of the French Law 
and Constitution, civil and religious liberty,equality of rights,and pop- 
ular sovereignty. The next Assembly had but a short existence — from 
Oct. 1, 1791, to Sept. 21, 1792. Then began the so-called reign of 
terror practically., See Am. Cyclo., Vol. 7, pp 673. Also Encyclo- 
pedia of Chronology, pp 1194. 

The French Revolution very properly may date back to 1787 — four 
years before the publication of aline of the "Rights of Man." 

Mackintosh says: "No series of events in history have probably 
been more widely, malignantly, and systematically exaggerated than 
the French commotion. See Knight's History of England, Vol. 7, 
p 191. 

Hear what Carlyle says in reference to the numbers slain in the 
so called Reign of Terror. He says: "The convention published 
lists of those the Reign of Terror proscribed; This list contained 
the names of 2,000, all but a tew. The splenetic Montgellard con- 
tends that there was 4,000 — that is all. Compare this with atrocities 
perpetrated by direct councils of God: 

The Inquisition 3,000,000 

Eucharist 5,000,000 

The Holy Crusades 7,000,000 

Reformation 3,000,000 

And so on through the whole list of religious persecutions and 



II 

wars, amounting in all to 25,000,000 souls. But this was the slaugh- 
ter of the innocents by the holy hands of Christians. 25,000,000 
against 2,000 leaves a balance of 24,998,000 in favor of meek and 
holy Christianity — a conclave with bloody hands and revengeful 
hearts. Am I just? Read the following from the Lives of the Wes- 
leys, page 443: 

What a company of execrable wretches ha\'a.th.eyrbeen. (one cannot give them 
a milder title) who have almost in ^yery a^^sinee St. Cypri*h, taken upon 
them to govern the church. How'hasohe council been perpetually cursing an- 
other; and delivering all over to Satan, whether predecessors or co temporaries, 
who did not implicitly receive their determinations, though generally trifling, 
sometimes false, and frequently unintelligible or self-contradictory! Surely 
Mahometanism was let loose to reform the Christians. I know not but Constan- 
tinople has gained by the change. 

But Carlyle speaks plain and to the point. He says: 

France confesses mournfully that there is no period to be met with in which 
the general 25,000,000 of France suffered less than in this period which they 
name "Reign of Terror," but it was not the dumb millions that suffered here; 
it was the speaking thousands and hundreds and units who shrieked and pub- 
lished and made the world ring with their wail.— See Carlyle 's works. 

But Lindsley, or his reflection in the New JVorthivest, does not like 
the logic or the "Rights of man." He is in company with all lovers 
of monarchical government* Doctor Lindsley's apologist says: 

"Edmund Burke, one of the few among the very greatest intellects of all time, 
had published his "Reflections on the Revolution in France." The power of 
this book is extraordinary beyond that of any other production in the entire field 
of political literature. It is not too much to say that in this production he enun- 
ciated profounder principles of political wisdom than any other man in any age 
has ever reached, set forth in a style of eloquence which no other writer has 
been able to sustain or imitate." 

Now read a quotation from Burke's "Reflections on the French 
Revolution." 

It is the thesis around which revolves every part of his intricate 
argument for monarchy. In fact the entire sum and substance of 
"Reflections" were calculated to be a defence of kingly government, 
and so well did he succeed that in his later days Burke was sup- 
ported by Royal pension. But to the words of Burke: 

We have an inheritable crown; an inheritable peerage, and a House of Com- 
mons, and a people inheriting franchises and liberties from a long line of an- 
cestors. The policy appears to me to be the result of profound reflection, or 
rather a happy effect of following nature, which is wisdom without reflection, 
and above it. A spirit of innovation is generally the result of a selfish temper 
and confined views. A people will not look forward to posterity who never look 
backward to their ancestors.— Burke's Works, Vol. I, p 469— Art. Reflection on 
the French Revolution. 

On page 481, in the same article, Burke says: 

Government is not made in virtue of any natural rights. 

These are the "profound principles of political wisdom" enun- 
ciated by Burke and endorsed by Dr. Lindsley and his apologist, and 
they are anti-republican in every sense in which they can be applied. 

Paine wrote his "Rights of Man" in opposition to this theory, of 
Burke, and in favor of republican government; and how well he 
succeeded is best attested by the Royal decree put forth to suppress 
the 'disloyal" and "treasonable" work ot the Author Hero. Fine 
and imprisonment followed the "Rights of Man" until it was ban- 
ished from the kingly realm. 

The reply to Burke of Sir James Mackentosh and Robert Hall did 
not rank so deservedly high as to attract the attention of the min- 
istry. The reply of Paine was the only one that attracted anything 



12 

bordering on its importance. Of this the Court Journals of Eng- 
land fully show. 

It is not surprising that the King and his defender, Burke, did 
not like Thomas Paine, any more than does Mr. Lindsley, or the 
tory allies of England in our colonial struggle for Independence. 
They are all Royal haters of the patriot, and have good reason to be 
so. When the Age of 'Rea^cjn appeared, Christians joined the tory 
phalanx and Vied with* each other in Vain efforts to blacken the 
name that has stood through these scores of years, firm as the sturdy 
oak on the mountain top — the beacon of human liberty and the hope 
of an oppressed world. Common Sense broke the fetters that 
chained America, and the Rights of Man shook the thrones of 
Europe as they had never been shaken before. Why then should 
Lindsley, or the peripatetic scribler in 'the New Northwest endeavor 
to falsify history, as they have most palpably and reprehensibly 
done. I can paint no language sufficiently forcible to describe my 
detestation of those who study to belie history and degrade a man 
whose shoes they are unworthy to polish. 

With an "ignorant cant" the defamers of Paine point to his no- 
ted letter to Washington, in which he gives the following directions 
to the sculptor who should make a monument for Washington. The 
sarcasm^had its effect: 

Take from the mine the coldest, hardest stone; 
It needs no fashion; it is Washington; 
Bat if you chisel, let your strokes be rude, 
And on his breast engrave ingratitude. 

Impartial history will show that Washington was apparently un- 
grateful to Paine, and feeling the sting of neglect, the letter, over 
which Lindsley and his apologist prate so much, was written and it 
had the good effect to bring Washington to a sense of his duty. 
Here another Christian mountain has faded away until it has become 
the shadow of a very small mole hill. 

The Pacific Christian Advocate, with much assurance, says: 

The memory of this noted Atheist has attracted no little attention of late in 
our community. Unworthy as Paine is to be noticed in a Christian Journal, we 
place on record the following interesting and able article, written by a citizen 
of Portland and published in the New Northwest. 

If the editor will look at Webster's Dictionary, and then examine 
the writings of Thomas Paine, he will find that he has made a shame- 
ful misapplication of the word "atheist." Every reader of Paine's 
writings knows full well that he was a Deist and not an Atheist. I 
regret exceedingly that the editor of the P. C. Advocate had not in- 
formed himself of the life and merits of Paine before he voluntered 
an adverse opinion. Truth is a pearl of much value. Brother 
Dillon, let us cherish the truth. 

But again, Dr. Lindsley could not conceive the manner of Paine's 
escape from the guillotine, the door of his cell in the Luxombourg 
prison having been marked for that purpose by order of Robespeirre 
The facts are easily explained. Paine was very sick — near the port- 
als of death and his cell door was opened during the day, and conse- 
quently marked on the inside, and when closed the mark could not 
be seen by the executioner, who claimed his victims early in the 
morning, while the doors of all the cells W6re yet closed. A very 
simple fact, and yet very miraculous to the comprehension of the 
Reverend Lecturer. 

A fitting close to this part of my review is 



i3 

PAINE'S POLITICAL CBEED. 

(Extract from, the "Crisis.") 

"Society in every state is a blessing, but government, even in its best state, is 
but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one; for when we suffer, or 
are exposed to the same miseries by a government, which we might expect in a 
country without government, our calamity is heightened by reflecting that we 
furnish the means by which we suffer. Security being the true design and end 
of government, it unanswerably follows, that whatever form thereof appears 
most likely to ensure it tb us, with the least expense and greatest benefit, is 
preferable to all others." 

"This is my creed of politics. If I have any where expressed myself over 
warmly, 'tis from a fixed, immovable hatred I have, and ever had, to cruel men 
and cruel measures. 

"If there is a sin superior to every other, it is that of willful and offensive war. 
Most other sins are circumscribed within narrow limits, that is the power of one 
man cannot give them a very general extension and many kinds of sin have 
only a mental existence from which no infection arises; but he who is the author 
of a war, lets loose the whole contagion of heil and opens a vein that bleeds a 
nation to death." 

In the opening of the "moral" and "religious" department of 
Dr. Lindsley 's lecture, the speaker went off in a tangent of bitter 
sarcasm on the writers against Christianity, forgetting to mention 
how the Rev. Millman mutilated the works of Gibbon for the sake 
of the church, and how later divines have patched up Watson's Apol- 
ogy because it spoke too highty of the powerful logic of Paine in 
his objections to the Bible. Poor Lindsley. — Hear him: "With a 
shallow cant they call us priests," and then he hissed between his 
teeth, "the wit is as shallow as the blow is harmless." Thus sarcas- 
tically the Doctor repudiates the term "priest." Let us see — it is 
barely possible again to expose the Doctor's ignorance of words. 

Webster says: Priest— (Lat. Presbyter.) (Christian Church) A presbyter 
or elder; a minister. 

Presbyter— An elder having authority to instruct and guide in the church. 
"New Presbyter is but old Priest writ large." — Milton. Andrews Latin— Eng- 
lish Lexicon says: 

Presbyter — An elder in ihe Christian Church. 

Presbyteratus— The office of a Presbyter or a Priest. 

Webster says: Presbyterian — Pertaining to a Presbyter, or to ecclesiastical 
government by Presbyters. 

Presbyterianism — Church government which invests Presbyters with all 
spiritual power. 

If the Doctor will look for the Greek origin of the word he will 
find that it means simply to "stand before." And yet the Doctor is 
ashamed of it. I don't blame him. Poor Tray suffered for being 
found in bad company. 

Dr. Lindsley makes light of the idea that Paine should write the 
first part of the Age of Reason without a Bible — not being able to 
find one in all Paris. In irony he says: "What, destroy the Chris- 
tian's hope, without a Bible?'? The Doctor pretended to not be able 
to explain the mistery. But how simple, even to the capacity of a 
child. France was a Catholic country, and Bibles were not as wide- 
ly disseminated as in our country, they were rare articles, the priest- 
hood controling and directing in matters of faith. But although 
written without a Bible before him, his knowledge of its contents 
enabled him to produce a work that has confounded the wisdom of 
the theological world. Not a single misquotation or false reference 
can be pointed out. Will Dr. Lindsley try it? 

The sagacious Doctor ammused himself by relating the story of a 
rat gnawing at a file that chanced to be in its way. The falling chips 
encouraged the rat to renewed efforts, but when the teeth were worn 



14 

down to the quick the rat was much annoyed to discover that the file 
was yet uninjured, and that the chips after all was nothing but "rat 
ivory." Now so far from the "rat" being a representative of Infidel- 
ity, it is an unprejudiced picture of Christianity, which is cutting and 
cruel, as history plainly shows; on the other hand, the Bible cannot 
be represented by a file, for a file is of fine metal, and true to its de- 
sign; the Bible is soft, of mixed rubbish and attains no stated end. 
The file is a fit emblem of those stern and unalterable laws of nature 
that are one and the same, yesterday, to-day .and forever. At these 
laws, Christianity has been acting the part of a "rat."- It gnawed at 
Astronomy^— discovered by paganism and applied by Galileo to 
"Christian civilization," but was repudiated by the Church. "Rat 
ivory." It gnawed at the art of printing and Christian councils pro- 
claimed it the art of the devil. But printing is the great civilizer of 
the world. "Rat ivory." It gnawed at the general diffusion of 
knowledge, but knowledge is becoming universal. "Rat ivory." It 
set its teeth on the Gregorian theory, but that theory is adopted in 
the prevailing calendar of Christendom. "Rat ivory." It tugged in 
good rat style at Jenner, Faust, Wilkinson, Newton, Franklin, Watt, 
Fulton, Stevenson and Singer. But the fruit of this labor has proved 
a blessing to the world. "Rat ivory." With renewed venom it has 
set its teeth on Voleney, Bolingbroke, Hume, Hobbs, Gibbon, Vol- 
taire, Paine, Darwin, Herbert, Spencer and the whole school of sci- 
entists. But sciences survives the splenetic wrath of the Church, 
and while the latter is lost in the cloud of its own ignorance, cruelty 
and human brutality, the former is becoming the light ot the world, 
as it is to be the redeemer of mankind. Brother Lindsley have you 
not some experience in "rat ivory?" 

So far from the rat representing the Infidel gnawing at Christiani- 
ty, the reader will readily recognize the features of Dr. Lindsley as 
he vigorously "gnaws" at the "moral character" of Thomas Paine. 
Doctor will you favor us with another dose of " rat ivory." 

"I have read some portions of the Age of Reason, says the Doctor, 
and in the next breath he declares, there is not a solitary objection to 
the Bible in the writings of Thomas Paine that cannot be explained. 
That is plain and I s^and by it." 

Good for the Doctor. Let us see. 

Moses was a foundling, Jesus Christ was born in a stable and Mahomet was a 
mule driver. The first and the last of these men were the founders of different 
systems of religion, hut Jesus Christ founded no new system; he called men to 
the practice of moral virtue. He was a philanthropist.— Age of Eeason, Part I, 
p 24. The Christian mythologist tell us that Christ died for the sins of the 
world, and that he came on purpose to die. Would it not have been the same 
if he had died of a fever, of smallpox, of old age or of anything else. — Ibid. 25. 

Will Lindsley answer? 

The declaratory sentence which, they say, was passed upon Adam, was not 
that thou shalt surely be crucified, but thou shalt surely die. The sentence of 
death and not the manner of dying. A fever would have done as well as a cross. 
—Ibid. 25. If Jesus Christ was the being which those mythologists tell us he 
was, and that he came into this world to suffer, a word sometimes used instead 
of to die, the only real suffering he could have endiired, would have been to 
live. His existence here was a state of exilement or transportation from heaven, 
and the way back to his original country was to die. In fine, everything in this 
strange system is the reverse of what it'pretends to be.— Ibid. 26. 

Will Lindsley explain? 

If I owe a person money, and cannot pay him, and he threatens to put me in 
prison, another person can take the debt upon himself and pay it for me; but if 
I have committed a crime, every circumstance of the case is changed, moral 



i5 

justice cannot take the innocent for the guilty, even if the innocent would offer 
itself. 

This single reflection will show that the doctrine of redemption is founded 
on a mere pecuniary idea, corresponding to that of a debt, which another person 
might pay, and as the pecuniary idea corresponds again with the system of sec- 
ond redemption, obtained through the means of money given to the church for 
pardons, the probability is, that the same person fabricated both one and the 
other of those theories; and that, in truth, there is no such thing as redemption; 
that it is fabulous, and that man stands in the same relative condition with his 
maker he ever did stand since man existed. Let him believe this and he will 
live more consistantly and morally than by any other system. — Ibid. 29. 

The ancient mycologists tell us that the race of Giants made war against Ju- 
piter, and that one of them threw a hundred rocks against him at one throw; 
and that Jupiter defeated him with thunder, and confined him under Mount 
vEtna, and that every time the Giant turns himself, Mount iEtna belches fire. — 
Age of Reason, p 12. 

The Christian mythologists tell us that their Satan made war against the Al- 
mighty, who defeated him, and confined him afterwards, not under a mountain, 
but in a pit. It is here easy to see that the first fable suggested the idea of the 
second; for the fable of Jupiter and the Giants was told many hundred years be- 
fore that of Satan. — Ibid. 13. 

How is that, friend Lindsley? 

When Moses told the children of Israel that he received the two tables of the 
commandments from the hands of God, they were not obliged to believe him 
because they had no other authority for it than his telling them so. When I 
am told that the koran was written in heaven, and brought to Mahomet by an 
angel the account comes too near the same kind of hearsay evidence and second- 
hand authority as the former. When also I am told that a woman called the 
Virgin Mary, said, or gave out, that she was with child without any cohabitation 
with a man, and that her betrothed husband, Joseph, said that an angel told 
him so, I have a right to believe them or not; such a circumstance required 
a much stronger evidence than their bare word for it; but we have not even this 
— for neither Joseph nor Mary w T rote any such matter themselves; it is only re- 
ported by others that they said so. — Ibid, p 8-9. 

Friend Lindsley, is not this good history; sound sense and better 
logic? 

"Nobody believes the Trojan story, as related by Homer to be true— for it is 
the poet only that is admired; and the merit of the poet will remain, though the 
story be fabulous. As to the ancient historians, from Herodotus to Tacitus, we 
credit them as far as they relate to things probable and credible, and no further; 
for if we do, we must believe the two miracles which Tacitus relates were per- 
formed by Vespasian, that of curing a lame man, in just the same manner as 
the same" things are told of Jesus Christ, by his historians. We must also be- 
lieve the miracles cited by Josephus, that of the sea of Paraphilia openining to 
let Alexander and his army pass, as is related of the Red sea in Exodus. These 
miracles are quite as well "authenticated as "the Bible miracles.— Age of Reason, 
Part II, p. 85. 

Dr. Lindsley, is not this reasonable? 

"I never will believe a book that ascribes cruelty and injustice to God." — Let- 
ter to a Friend. Age of Reason, p. 206. 

"I wish you to know that this answer to your letter is not written for the pur- 
pose of changing your opinion. It is written to satisfy you and some other 
friends, whom I esteem, that my disbelief of the Bible is" founded on a pure and 
religious belief in God; for in my opinion, the Bible is a gross libel against the 
justice and goodness of God in almost every part of it."— Ibid 207. 

Paine did not believe in a written revelation from God, he says: 

"It is only in the creation that all our ideas and conceptions of a word of God 
can unite. The creation speaks the universal language, independently of hum- 
an speech or human language, multiplied and various as they be. It" is an ev- 
er existing original, which every man can read. It cannot be forged; cannot be 
counterfeited; it cannot be lost; it cannot be altered; it cannot be suppressed. It 
does not depend upon the will of man whether it shall be published or not; it 
publishes itself from one end of the earth to the other. It preaches to all na- 



16 . 

lions and to all worlds; and this word of God reveals to man all that is necessary 
for man to know of God." — Age of Keason p 31-2. 

Friend Linclsley, what say you to this? 

"The Almighty lecturer, by displaying the principles of science in the universe, 
has invited man'to study and to imitate. It is as if he had said to the inhabitants 
of this globe, "I have made an earth for man to dwell upon and I have rendered 
the starry heavens visible to teach him sciences and the arts. He caD now pro- 
vide for his own comfort, and learn from my munificence for all to be kind to 
each other." — Ibid 40. 

When seven or eight years of age Paine heard a sermon upon the 
subject of "Redemption by the death of the Son of God." He could 
not reconcile himself to the thought that God Almighty should mur- 
der his own Son and not be hung for it. He called it a cruel 
and a needless act, and thus expresses his conclusion: "Any 
system of religion that has anything in it that shocks the mind of a 
child, cannot be a true system." — Age of Reason, part I, p 51. 

But I cannot follow this interesting line of quotations, and will 
only add this piece of advice: Dr. Lindsley should read the whole 
of the Age of Reason before he makes any more rash promises, for 
the thousand objections of Paine to the Bible have never been an- 
swered from a Christian standpoint and never can be. In this the 
Doctor was rash by using words without wisdom. But Dr. Linds- 
ley says: "The Bible is all that restrains men." If that is so, pity 
be to a benighted world. Why does not the Bible restrian the two 
hundred and fifty Rev. Beechers exposed every year? Surely 
Lindsley must be jesting. Again the Lecturer says: "The Bible is 
the best book ever known." But here again he was at fault. A few 
quotations must suffice. It is illogical and nonsensical. Luke ix. 
18, says: "When Jesus was alone, praying, his disciples were with 
him." How could he be alone, and they with him? In Isaiah vii. 
20, we read: "The Lord shall shave with a razor that is hired, 
namely, by those beyond the river, by the king of Assyria, the head 
and the hair of the feet, and it shall also consume the beard." There's 
erudition for you. "A dozen Philadelphia lawyers" could not make 
any sense out of that. The Bible says that death came into the 
world through man's sin. Science declares this to be utterly false. 
Death is a natural law of life. The world is go verend by evolution 
and dissolution. 

A man cannot be older than his father, and yet the Bible says so — 
(2 Chronicles 21:20 and 22:1-2) Here a man's youngest son is two 
years older than his father. Another monstrous falsehood in refer- 
ence to Dan, who had only one son, and yet in the fourth generation 
his decendants had increased to 64,400 wariors, counting men, wo- 
men and children there must have been not less than 300,000 Dan- 
ites, thus setting at defiance all laws in reference to the increase of 
population. 

Again, in less than four hundred years after the deluge, the de- 
scendants of Noah's three sons — nonejof whom had a child before the 
flood — had so multiplied that four kingdoms were engaged in war 
with five other kingdoms, besides over a dozen more kingdoms are 
mentioned as then existing. Is not this also opposed to all of Na- 
ture's physiological and reproductive laws? 

From Jacob's family that went into Egypt, there sprang in 215 
years between two and three million people. There were only four- 
generations as Exodus plainly states, and yet seventy people in- 
crease to this miraculous number. Think of it. There must have 
been forty-six children to every couple in every generation, without 



17 
exception. But in the first generation the twelve sons of Jacob had 
altogether only fifty three sons. At this rate of increase the fourth 
generation would have numbered 6,311. Here Nature or the Bible 
lies. Bishop Colenso charges it to the exaggerations of Exodus. 

According to the Bible the following events took place with Judah 
during the first forty-two years of his life: He grows up, marries 
and has three sons; the eldest son grows up, marries and dies; the 
second son marries his brother's widow and dies; the third son, after 
waiting to grow to maturity, declines to marry the widow; the wid- 
ow then deceives Judah himself and bears him twins; one of these 
twins, Pharez, (from whom Jesus was descended according to Mat- 
thew) grows up and has two sons born to him, yet Judah was only 
forty-two years old at the end of all these transactions. (See Gene- 
sis xxxviii.) Four generations in forty-two years. Is not this mani- 
festly absurd and impossible; contrary to established physiological 
laws? 

It has been denied that the Bible God ever sanctioned vengeance 
among men, or practiced it himself. Those who make the state- 
ment must be woefully ignorant of the contents of the Bible, for, 
althrough that book God is described as a revengeful, retaliatory, vin- 
dictive, sanguinary monster. Nahum i. 2, says: "God is jealous 
and the Lord revengeth; the Lord revengeth and is furious; the 
Lord will take vengeance on his adversaries, and he reserveth wrath 
for his enemies." That is plain enough in all conscience. Exodus 
xxxii. 27, 28, says: "Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, put every 
man his sword by his side, and slay every man his brother, and ev- 
ery man his neighbor, and there fell of the people that day about 
three thousand men." 1 Samuel, xv. 3 says: "Go and smite Ama- 
lek and utterly destroy all that they have; and spare them not, but 
slay both man, woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel 
and ass." And. this wholesale butchery was ordered simply for 
what their ancestors had done four hundred years previously. In 1 
Sam. vi., 19, we are informed that God savagely killed 50,070 wheat- 
reapers in the valley, because they looked into the ark. And what 
was the ark? A trumpery old box, an idol of the Jews, revered by 
them as sacred, like the car of Jugernaut by the Hindoos. That was 
a pretty extensive wheat field in the valley in which fifty thousand 
men could be reaping in at one time. 

But this is not all. The Bible is continually misrepresenting the 
character of the true God. Hear its blasphemy: 

God formed man in his ownnmage, though his own image had no 
form, (Gen. i. 27; John iv. 24,) created an author of all evil, though 
not himself the author of any evil, (Gen. iii. 1; James i. 13,) and 
caused his creatures to commit the most abominable crimes, and suf- 
fer the intensest agonies, though not himself the cause of either 
criminality or agony.— Isaiah xiii. 16-18; Hosea xiii. 16. 

God saw that the work he had performed was very good, yet pres- 
ently discovered it was very bad, (Gen. ^i. 7,) — foreknew that man 
would sin, yet was indignantly astonished that he did' sin, (Gen. vi. 
5-6,) foreknew that the forbidden fruit would be eaten, yet damned 
the whole human race because it was eaten — Gen. iii. 15. 

God, though always in all places, occasionally came down from 
heaven, just to see how the world wagged, (Gen. xi. 5; xviii. 21,) ; 
though always of the same opinion, occasionally changed his mind, 
(Gen. vi. 6,; Jonah iii. 10; though in good temper, occasionally in a 
thundering passion, (1 Sam. vi. 19; Numb. xxv. 4); though always 
merciful to perfection, occasionally murdering millions of innocent 



i8 

beings, (Exodus xi. 4-5); and though without parts, did, upon a par- 
ticular occasion, show his back parts. — Exodus xxxiii. 23. 

A God so deceptive as to send upon his people "strong delusions" 
that they might believe a lie, (2 Thess. ii. 11-12); so very silly as to 
be ''checkmated by the Devil," (Gen. iii. 4-5;) and so atrociously 
cruel, that no human tyrant could equal him in brutal wickedness. 
— Jeremiah xiii. 14; 1 Sam. xv. 2-3. 

A God whose presence would make a hell of heaven, (Heb. xii. 29) 
whose virtues are vices, (Exodus xxii. 5; Psalms vii. 11); whose 
reason would disgrace an idiot, (Exodus xxi. 21); whose laws would 
shock a savage, (Numbers xv. 30-35); whose fickleness provokes de- 
rision, (Jer. xv. 6); and whose whole character is a horrible com- 
pound, "an intense concentration" of the worst vices which has 
stained the worst human natures. — Exodus xxxii. 27; Ezekiel xiv.9; 
1 Kings xxii. 21-22. 

But this does not complete the 'catalogue of errors of "The best 
Book ever known." 

We also find robbery, vagabondism, polygamy, prostitution, de- 
bauchery, adultery, degradation and enslavement of women, slavery 
and the slave trade, tyranny and oppression, all enjoined in the Bi- 
ble. Virtue and learning are discouraged, and vice and ignorance 
encouraged. Breach of faith, lying and hypocrisy are also encour- 
aged. Persecution unto death for opinion's sake, is expsessly com- 
manded. Suicide is recommended in Prov. xxiii. 1, 2. Wholesale 
murder and assassination are commanded and rewarded on numer- 
ous occasions. If I had time, I could quote verse and chapter for 
every statement herein made. 

The Bible is not only nonsensical, illiterate, unscientific and un- 
reasonable, but it is grossly immoral. Read Gen. xxxviii. 8, 9, 10, 
also the remainder of the chapter. Will Dr. Lindsley read this chap- 
ter, from the*"best book ever known" to his young lady converts. 

But there are also abominable requirements in the New Testament. 
Read Luke xiv. 26, "If any man come to me and hate not his fath- 
er, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, 
yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple." Reader how 
do you like these terms? Does not the record of Christian rapine 
and cruelty prove that the "disciples" have accepted that require- 
ment in good faith? 

But there are good things in the Bible, so is there in the almanac. 
But the goodness is not original with the Bible. Here are the ten 
commandments of the Chinese, known long before the days of Moses 

First, thou shalt not kill the smallest creature; second, thou shalt not steal; 
third, thou shalt not infringe the laws of chastity; fourth, thou shalt not lie; 
fifth, thou shalt not calumniate; sixth, thou shalt not revenge injuries; seventh, 
thou shalt not excite quarrels; eighth, honor thy father and mother; ninth, pre- 
serve faith in the Holy Writings; tenth, believe in immortality. 

Confucius gave the golden rule, (copied from his predecessors,) 
five hundred years before Christ. Here it is. 

"Whatsoever you would that men should not do to you, do you 
not to them." 

The Buddhist law, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy 
strength and all thy mind, with thy whole heart and thy whole 
soul, and thy neighbor as thyself," is also the Christian law. 

To show the similarity of the Buddhist with the Christian religion 
I will read an extract: "The oracle commanded Vishnu to become 
a man, and be^ born in the city of Matra, or Buddha. Vishnu re 



i 9 

plied: 'I will become incarnate in the house of Sadie, and will issue 
forth to mortal birth from the womb of Davaci (a virgin;. It is time 
I should display my power and relieve the oppressed earth from its 
load.' When Davaci became pregnant her countenance became ra- 
diant with celestial light. Brahma and Siva, with a host of spirits, 
came to her and sang: 'In thy delivery, our favored of all women, 
all Nature has cause to exult. How ardently we longed to look and 
behold that face, for the sake of which we have come to exult; how 
ardently we have longed to look and behold that face, for the sake 
of which we have coursed round the three worlds.' " "Put not up- 
on thy neighbor's head a hat that hurts thine own," says Buddha, 
who stands as Christ does, an intercessor between the Almighty Fa- 
ther and man. Can we not infer, therefore, that man by following 
such principles as these may inherit the kingdom of heaven? 

But enough ot this. Again says Lindsley: "Christianity is not 
on trial," I am sorry for that. A Christianity so full of blood and 
crime richly deserves a trial. In fact it is being weighed in this Age 
of Reason and, is found wanting. 

"Paine was a drunkard." I say he was not a drunkard. His most 
intimate friends, Clio Rickman and others, said they never saw him 
under the influence of liquor, although he followed the habits of 
his country by keeping a bottle on his sideboard. It was his custom 
to take a glass three times a day — morning, noon and night — and 
that was his privilege and not our business. 

"Paine was a profane man." I answer — Paine was not a profane 
man. Profanity belongs to orthodoxy. They are the patrons of 
every form of damnation, or damning. But suppose Paine did swear. 
It is but an idle habit — like praying — neither party mean anything 
by it. It would be much better to devote those idle moments to 
some avocation more practical, useful and honorable. 

Again, "Paine failed to attain any of the ends and aims of life." 
Here again the speaker is at fault. Paine was not a miser. He did 
not preach for $3,000 a year. He gave his labors to the world and 
we are sharing its fruit — political and religious liberty, so fast out- 
growing sectarian hate and injustice. 

"Paine said," says Lindsley: "I would give the world if that book 
had never been printed. "(Age of Reason)"I wrote it for my own amuse- 
ment." Paine never said any such thing. The Age of Reason was 
the production of bis mature years and intended for his last, best 
gift to the world. Walter Morton, in a short narative of Paine, says: 

In his religious opinions he continued to the last as steadfast and tenacious as 
any sectarian to the definition of his own creed. He never, indeed, broached 
the subject first, but to intrusive and inquisitive visitors, who came to try him 
on that point, his general answer was to this effect: "My opinions are now be- 
fore the world, and all have an opportunity to refute them if they can. I be- 
lieve them unanswerable truths, and that I have done great service to mankind 
by boldly putting them forth. I do not wish to argue upon the subject now. I 
have labored disinterestedly in the cause of truth." I shook his hand after his 
use of speech had gone; but while the other organs told me sufficiently that he 
knew me and appreciated my affection, his eye glistened with genius under the 
pangs of death. 

Judge Cooper, who according to Thomas Jefferson, was one of the 
the ablest men in America, says: "Paine's opinion on theological 
subjects underwent no change before his death." This whole charge 
was the fabrication of a servant girl in the family where Paine lived. 
She was hired by the enemies of Paine to give authenticity to that 
story, but when confronted by a committee to ascertain the truth, 
she refused to say a word. Such is Dr. Lindsley's authority. His 



20 

temple of fabrications has fallen — hurting none but himself. How 
unfortunate that men will not at all times tell the truth, and especi- 
ally those men who set themselves up as "Divine teachers." There 
is but one excuse lor those who repeat the calumnies against Paine, 
and that is "A lie well stuck to may serve the holy purposes of the 
church." 

"The cold negations of Infidelity," says Lindsley, "what have 
they done for the world." I answer with an extract, taken some 
years ago, from the New York Evangelist — a Presbyterian paper: 

" To the shame of the church it must be confessed, that the foremost in all 
our philanthropic movements, in the interpretation of the spirit of the age, in 
the practical application of genuine Christianity, in the reformation of abuses in 
high and in low places, in the vindication of the rights of man, and in practical- 
ly redressing his wrongs, in the moral and intellectual regeneration of the race, 
are the so-called Infidels in our land. 

The church has pusillanimously left, not only the working oar, but the very 
reins of salutary reforms in the hands of men she denounces as inimical to 
Christianity; and who are practically doing with all their might for Humamity's 
gake, that which the Church ought to be doing for Christ's sake; and if they 
succeed, as succeed they will, in abolishing slavery, banishing rum, restraining 
licentiousness, reforming abuses, and elevating the masses, then must the recoil 
on Christianity be disastrous. Woe, woe, woe, to Christianity, when Infidels by 
force of nature, or the tendency of the age, get ahead of the church in morals 
and in the practical work of Christianity! In some instances they are already 
far in advance. In the vindication of Truth, Righteousness and Liberty, they 
are the pioneers, beckoning to a sluggish church to follow in the rear." 

But, says Lindsley, with a smile of triumph: "Franklin said to 
Paine, in a letter, "Don't unchain the tiger." Very probably the ti- 
ger was Christianity and if Paine cut its bands it would devour him. 
Surely Dr. Franklin was correct. But again Dr. Lindsley is unfor- 
tunate. Here, as in every other case he cited, his authority was only 
visionary. By reading the first page of the first part of the Age of 
Reason, and the preface to the second part, dated October, 1795, the 
reader will learn that the first part of the work was completed only 
six hours before his arrest and imprisonment in Paris. 

He certainly could have had no time to correspond with Dr. Frank- 
lin. The dedication of the first part is dated Luxombourg, Jan. 27, 
O. S., 1794 — a few days after his imprisonment, and the work was 
but a few weeks in preparation, for it was intended to reserve it to 
a later period in his life. 

But there is another objection to the "tiger" story: It is this — 
Franklin died April 17, 1790— nearly four years before a line of the 
Age of Reason was written. (See Encyclopedia of Biography, Art. 
Ben. Franklin, and Life of Franklin, also Am. Encyclopedia.) Sure- 
ly Lindsley must be a spiritualist to have Dr. Franklin return and 
give such holy advice for the benefit of the church. Dr. Lindsley 
may point a moral, not only from his "tiger" dilemma, but from the 
bundle of errors in which he fell from the first to the close of his un- 
fair and untruthful representation of Paine's life and character. But 
it has long been said that "A drowning man will catch at a straw." 
This explains the blundering efforts of Christian preachers in bely- 
ing the character of Paine. 

But says Lindsley, "I cannot speak of his miserable end." Very 
good. I suppose the reverend divine was so full of misrepresenta- 
tion, calumny and abuse, that "another straw would break the cam- 
el's back." To slander the dying is enough to choke even a man 
with but a grain of manhood. The fact is, the charge of a miserable 
death is without a shadow of support in fact or history. But Linds- 
ley retorts, "James Cheatham says so." Well, who was Cheatham, — 



21 

A slanderer of women, a tool of the church and among the basest of 
villains, prosecuted for libel in his "Life of Paine," found guilty 
and fined. This is the character of the Christian witness, on whom 
the Judge, in passing sentence, made it as leuient as possible because 
his libels did good service to the church in blackmailing the charac- 
ter of the man who had thrown an impassible barrier in the way of 
its progress. Mr. Lindsley, you are welcome to your witness. 
Honest men prefer the truth. 

But how maliciously the Doctor speaks when he says: "Paine 
died with a foul disease." By insinuating and hypocritical cant you 
endeavored to defame the memory of your superior — yes, superior, 
for Paine never lied. I have but one word, and that is a demand, — 
give us your authority, or stand convicted in the eyes of all honest 
men as being guilty of wicked and malicious slander. 

Says the Doctor again, "He (Paine) went step by step down to ev- 
erlasting death." How does Lindsley know, unless he is in special 
communication with his God. Less haste to condemn and you 
will make more certain progiess. 

But Lindsley cannot "smile without a tear." How different from 
some of his predecessors. Why not smile, even rejoice over the 
miseries of the damned, if it be God's truth. 

Jonathan Edwards says: 

"The sight of hell torments will exalt the happiness of saints forever." 

The renowned Tertulian said: 

"How shall I laugh, how admire, how exult, when I behold so many groaning 
in the lowest abyss of darkness, and blushing in raging fire." 

The Rev. Thomas Vincent says that 

"The sufferings of the lost will fill their saintly relatives with astonishment, 
admiration and wondering joy." 

But Paine was more than I have painted him. He was not only a 
patriot and statesman and a moralist, but he was an inventor as well 
as scientist. He constructed the first iron bridge of which we have 
any record — he took it to France and then to England where it now 
stands as a monument of his inventive genius. 

Watson in his Annals of Philadelphia says: 

" In June, 1785, John Fitch called on the ingenious William Henry, Esq. , of 
Lancaster, to take his opinion of his draughts, who informed him that he 
(Fitch) was not the first person who had thought of applying steam to vessels, 
for that Thomas Paine, author of ' Common Sense,' had suggested the same to 
him, (Henry) in the winter of 1778." 

But there is no end to the honors that have been awarded the il- 
lustrious dead. The Atlantic Monthly says: 

" His (Paine's) career was wonderful, even for the age of miraculous events 
he lived in. In America he was a revolutionary hero of the first rank, who car- 
ried letters in his pocket thanking him for his services; and he managed besides 
to write his name in large letters in the history of England and France."— At- 
lantic Monthly, vol. 4, p. 16. 

" The Democratic movement of the last eighty years, be it a 'finality' or only 
a phase of progress towards a perfect state, is the grand historical fact of mod- 
ern times, and Paine's name is intimately connected with it. "—Ibid, p. 17. 

I cannot close without alluding to the unfairness of Lindsley's 
lecture — in the arrangement and detail of his discourse. Not a wit- 
ness was quoted save a bitter enemy, a tory, federalist or a Christian, 
by whom Thomas Paine was most cordially hated. But this fire of 
hatred is fast consuming those who kindled it. Another decade and 



22 

the defamers of an honest man will be driven into merited oblivion. 
But we are not menworshipers. We admire the works of Thomas 
Paine and love to see our country and our countryman do justice to 
his memory. But we long for something better than this. We long 
to see men true to the liberalism that warms, like sunshine, in their 
souls. 

We are indebted to Thomas Paine as we are to inventors — he was 
one of the first to speak out boldly for free thought — others by rea- 
son of research and progress in art and science may have gone fur- 
ther in these latter days. But Thomas Paine rests securely as the 
chief corner stone of the great temple of freedom. Hail to the 
light that is dawning and that secures to us and to the world, "life, 
liberty and happiness." 

Reader, is not the design of this tractate accomplished? Are not 
the evidences produced sufficient to prove Dr. Lindsley most pro- 
foundly ignorant of the life, character and influence of Thomas 
Paine? And another fact has been established, by inference. It is 
this: The Patent Right, owned and controlled by Christians, (with 
all the guarantees secured to inventors) ought, by reason of limita- 
tion of time and the application of common sense, justice and human- 
ity, be this day declared void. Their Patent consisting in this: "The 
divine right, as inventors, of slandering Paine, cursing his memory 
and damning his soul." 

I would say more but space forbids. A fitting close is 
PATNE'S RELIGIOUS CREED. 
(Extract from the "Age of Reason." — 1794.) 

It has been my intention, for several years past, to publish my thoughts up- 
on religion. I intended it to be the last offering I should make to my fellow 
citizens of all nations, and that at a time when the purity of the motive that 
induced me to do it, could not admit of a question, even by those who might 
disapprove of the work! 

I believe in one God and no more; and I hope for happiness beyond this life. 

1 believe the equality of man; and I believe that religious duties consist in 
doing justice, loving mercy, and endeavoring to make our fellow creatures 
happy. 

But some perhaps will say— Are we to have no word of God— no revelation? 
I answer, yes; there is a word of God; there is a revelation. 

The word of God is the Ceeation we Behold, and it is in this word, which 
no human invention can counterfeit or alter, that God speaketh universally to 
man. * * * It preaches to all nations and to all worlds; and this word of 
God reveals to man all that is necessary for man to know of God. 

Do we want to contemplate his power? We see it in the immensity of the 
Creation. Do we want to contemplate his wisdom? We see it in the unchange- 
able order by which the incomprehensible whole is governed. Do we want to 
contemplate his munificence? We see it in the abundance with which he fills 
the earth. Do we want to contemplate his mei-cy? We see it in his not with- 
holding that abundance even from the unthankful. In fine, do we want to 
know what God is? Search not the book called the Scripture, which any human 
hand might make, but the Scripture called the Creation. 



23 

THE PACIFIC CHRISTIAN ADVOCATE ON MASQUERADES. 



"We defy the smartest heathen Chinee in our midst to outdo the 
vulgar and heathenish procession witnessed on our streets on Mon- 
day last. It was the masquerade by a society which seeks to intro- 
duce the relics of barbarism upon our shores. Some of the partici- 
pants appeared as monkeys, wild beasts, chicken-thieves, etc. They 
were all so ashamed that they covered their faces with masks, which 
was the only redeeming feature about the affair." — P. C. Advocate. 

Here is proscription for you. When a foreigner comes to our shores, 
he must get down on his knees and pay homage to his "Chris- 
tian superiors," and thus, instead of bettering his condition by com- 
ing to our boasted land of liberty, he would belittle it. *I am glad 
that we have a class of citizens, manly enough to act their own part 
in the great panorama of life without bending the pendant hinges of 
the knee to the self-constituted censors of public morality. Call 
them "chicken thieves" do you? What a relief would this epithet 
be to the ten thousand reverend Beechers in our land whose just ret- 
ribution would be the prison or the gallows. Give us masquerades 
as a relief to the drivelling, snivelling, disgusting performances of 
the church. 



JUSTICE TO PAINE, 

BY ANONYMOUS. 

Air: — "Thou reign 1 st," etc. 



Soft, soft, music is stealing, 
Sweet, sweet lingers the strain, 
Loud, loud, now it is pealing, 
Ringing for justice to Paine. 

Yes, yes, yes, yes, 

Ringing for justice to Paine. 

Join, join, in this hour of gladness, 
Send, send, sorrow away, 
Now, now, adieu to all sadness, 
Warble a joyful lay. 

Yes, yes, yes, yes, 

WarMe a joyful lay. 

Hope, hope, fair and enduring, 

J°y» J°y» bright as this day, 

Paine, Paine, by his lateor ensraring y 

Bids us send sorrow away. 
Yes, yes, yes, yes, 
We will send sorrow away. 



24 

THE HERO OF FREEDOM. 

Written for the occasion and sung at the Paine celebration , in Port- 
land, Oregon, on the evening of Jan. 30, 1876. 



TUNE-- Hallelujah." 
Tom Paine's body lies mouldering in the grave, 
His life and his labors to his country he gave ; 
The Author and Hero, the bravest of the brave — 
His soul is marching on. 
Chorus : Glory, Glory Hallelujah; 

Glory to his wisdom, his words and his worth, 
Tom Paine the hero of Liberty and Truth, — 
His works go marching on. 

We'll cheer for the hero whose country is the World; 
We'll join in the battle 'neath the banner he unfurled; 
We'll sharpen the weapons that his strong arm hurled; 
In battling for the truth. — Chorus. 

The glory of his manhood for freedom he gave; 
His Common Sense was mighty in the battle of the brave, 
His Age of Reason from bigotry will save — 
All for the rights of man. — Chorus. 

Tories they may frown at the work he began; 
Their thrones they shall crumble before the Bights of Man, 
For freedom shall circle the earth with a span — 
The fruit of our Liberty Tree. — Chorus. 

Bigots they may howl and Christians may turn pale, 
Scorning his message with a shrug and a wail; 
The soul of " Poor Tom " in their wrath may assail — 
Disciples of Christian love? — Chorus. 

But the weapons of truth shall rise like a star; 
Its glory shall shine o'er regions near and far; 
No Preacher, or Priest with their follies shall mar — 

Progression's most wonderful plan. — Chorus. 

Tom Paine's body lies mouldering in the grave, 
His life and his labors to his country he gave; 
The Author and Hero, the bravest of the brave — 
His soul is marching on. 
Chorus : Glory, Glory Hallelujah; 

Glory to his wisdom, his words and his worth, 
Tom Paine the hero of Liberty and Truth — 
His works go marching on. 



THE DEMANDS OF LIBERALISM. 



1. We demand that churches and other ecclesiastical property 
shall no longer be exempt from just taxation. 

2. We demand that the employment of chaplains in Congress, 
in State Legislatures, in the navy and militia, and in prisons, asylums, 
and all other institutions' supported by public money, shall be dis- 
continued. V 

3. We demand that all political favors shown clergymen shall 
cease, and that they shall be held liable to the performance of any 
public duty that mav be demanded of any private citizen. 

4. We demand that the privilege of performing the ceremony of 
marriage, when such a ceremony is held necessary, shall be per- 
formed by some civil officer, and that a marriage by a clergyman 
shall be considered void. 

5. We demand that all christian and theological references in 
our school books shall be promptly expunged. 

6. We demand that all christian instruction and religious wor- 
ship in all schools, colleges, and universities, supported in whole or 
in part by government appropriations, shall be abolished. 

7. We demand that all public appropriations for educational and 
charitable institutions of a sectarian character shall cease. 

8. We demand that all religious services now sustained by the 
government shall be abolished ; and especially that the use of the 
Bible in the public schools, whether ostensibly as a text-book or 
avowedly as a book of religious worship, shall be prohibited. 

9. We demand that the appointment, by the President of the 
United States or by the Governors of the various States, of all relig- 
ious festivals and feasts shall wholly cease. 

10. We demand that the judicial oath in the courts and in all 
other departments of the government shall be abolished, and that I 
simple affirmation under the pains and penalties of perjury shall be J 
established in its stead. 

11. We demand that all laws directly or indirectly enforcing the 
observance of Sunday as the Sabbath shall be repealed. 

12. We demand that all laws looking to the enforcement of 
" Christian" morality shall be abrogated, and that all laws shall be 
conformed to the requirements of natural morality, equal rights, and 
impartial liberty. 

i 

13. We demand that not only in the Constitutions of the United j 
States and of the several States, but also in the practical administra- 
tion of the same, no privilege or advantage shall be conceded to 
Christianity or any other special religion ; that our entire . political 
system shall be founded and administered on a purely secular basis; 
and that whatever changes shall prove necessary to this end shall be 
consistently, unflinchingly, and promptly made. 



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